Died in bomb blast

An Auckland refugee community leader, Hashem Slaimankhel, died in a bomb blast in Afghanistan at the weekend. A suicide bomber driving an ambulance killed at least 95 people in an attack claimed by the Taliban in the capital, Kabul. Slaimankhel trained as a doctor in Afghanistan before leaving in the late 1970s. He arrived in New Zealand as a refugee after spending time in Pakistan. Auckland Afghan Arif Saied said Slaimankhel had travelled to Afghanistan on a family trip ‘‘around Christmas time’’.

Fatal stabbing

A 59-year-old woman has been arrested after allegedly fatally stabbing her 58-year-old partner in a campervan at the Kaiko¯ura Top 10 Holiday Park at 7.45pm on Saturday.

Death in car fire

One person died after being trapped in a car fire near the Central Otago town of Cromwell yesterday about 3pm. Police said five others escaped.

Record broken

Saturday was the hottest day in western Otago town Wanaka since records began in 1972. On Saturday at 4.15pm, Metservice measured a temperature of 35.2 degrees Celsius at Wanaka Airport. It pipped Wanaka’s previous record of 34.5C in February 2005. However, it doesn’t get close to the hottest recorded in New Zealand: 42.4C at Rangiora on February 7, 1973.

Search near fire scene

Police have cordoned off a Dunedin home about 600 metres from where two people died in a house fire about 5.15am on Monday January 22. A police spokeswoman said the property was the subject of a search warrant but declined to comment on whether there were any links to the fire. Anastasia Margaret Neve, 39, and David Ian Clarke, were named by police as the two victims of the fire in the rear flat of a two-unit villa.